The 6 Most Body-Positive Celebrities

When it comes to our fave celebs, what’s not to like? They’re talented, ridiculously good looking and, for the most part, usually pretty good people. But aside from their Oscar-worthy and Billboard chart-climbing performances, what we love seeing them do most is stand up for healthy, natural standards of beauty. This is what makes them the true role models who we can admire – and stalk on Instagram.

Some celebrities are more outspoken about body positivity than others and some have pretty powerful words of real talk to share with us. Next time you’re killing it in your boot camp class or pushing yourself to run that extra mile on the treadmill, let these empowering quotes from strong, fierce and incredibly wise celebs remind you that you’re doing an amazing job:

Amy Poehler

The actress, well known for her hilarious comedic performances on NBC’s Saturday Night Live and Parks and Recreation, and roles in films like Mean Girls, Baby Mama and Sisters to name a few, wanted to make a difference in the self-esteem of young women so badly that she even started her own organization called Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. The group is dedicated to helping young people cultivate their most authentic selves. In one of the group’s most popular YouTube videos, called “Ask Amy,” she told her subscribers, “There’s only, like, five perfectly symmetrical people in the world, and they’re all movie stars, and they should be, because their faces are very pleasing to look at. But the rest of us are just a jangle of stuff, and the earlier you learn that you should focus on what you have and not obsess about what you don’t have, the happier you will be.” Well said, Amy!

Jennifer Lopez

A photo posted by Jennifer Lopez (@jlo) on May 22, 2016 at 12:32pm PDT

As if her ridiculously strong, toned and shapely bod at the not-so-ripe age of 46 doesn’t say it all, J-Lo has long held the reigning title of body-proud celeb for decades. Let’s be honest—she pretty much single-handedly changed the world’s perceptions of big butts. Thanks to her, they couldn’t be more “in.” But more importantly, Lopez, a self-proclaimed fitness fanatic, has touted the benefits of “earning” a healthy, strong body image, no matter the size, shape or experience. “[I’m like] a fighter, going into the ring. I do my cardio and I do my workouts with the Tracy Anderson Method. Sometimes when I get home and I’m not feeling so great, I make myself go to the gym. Then I come home and take a shower, put on a great outfit, some makeup, tie my hair up, and I feel pepped up and great about myself.”

Most of us fell in love with the all-American actress after her breakout role in the movie Veronica Mars. For those who didn’t, there was her hilarious performance in Forgetting Sarah Marshall to do the trick. Then she fell in love, married and had two babies with comedian Dax Shepard, proving to the world she really is the best. But on top of all of this is Bell’s fierce stance on healthy body image.

After having a baby and being attacked by paparazzi and the media’s accusations of weight gain, Bell knows how women are wrongly made to feel self-conscious about the natural changes their body goes through. “I had to surrender to not worrying about the way I looked, how much I weighed, because that’s just part of the journey of having a baby. I am not a woman whose self worth comes from her dress size,” she told Huff Po. And of her bikini bod in the tabloids: “Who cares if there are lumps on my thighs? I’m guilty of having human legs made up of fat, muscle and skin, and sometimes when you sit, they get bumpy!”

Lena Dunham

Known for her uncomfortably naked—and totally realistic–scenes in her self-written, -produced and -directed HBO series, Girls, Dunham has made quite the name for herself in the world of comedy and cinema. But what we love most about this outspoken, firecracker of a woman is how she flaunts her non-traditional celeb body proud.

She’s no size 2, and she wants everyone to know it. “I think about my body as a tool to do the stuff I need to do, but not the be all and end all of my existence. Which sounds like I spent a week at a meditation retreat, but it’s genuinely how I feel. I think I can do anything, as cliche as it sounds, to aid in the comfort of a woman accepting her form, then I want to do that.”

Chrissy Teigen

It’s not all the time that we see a supermodel stuff her face with fried chicken, post drool-worthy Instagram pics of food, publish a cookbook or stand up to body bullies of the world. But Teigen is different—so different that she even posted photos of her stretch marks from her naked cover photo from the September issue of UK Women’s Health.

Of magazine and advertisement’s long-standing policy of over-airbrushing every body part on a woman (or man), Teigen quipped, “I think it’s extra important right now to show a woman not wholly retouched…It’s not normal. I think it’s our responsibility as women to show our flaws and how we’re far from perfect.”

Demi Lovato

The 24-year-old has proven herself as a body-positive role model for her millions of fans over the years, especially after coming clean about her past struggles with an eating disorder. She’s used her experience as an opportunity to promote body love in her many interviews, on social media and in her music.

The songstress told Fitness magazine in 2014, “We all have problem areas. I’m always going to have thick thighs. I can’t change that, and obsessing over it will only make me miserable. Learning to be grateful for our bodies and taking care of them are the best ways for us to empower ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually.” And in light of the “thigh gap” obsession in recent years, she took to Instagram to remind her fans, “Regardless of what society tells you these days… You don’t have to have a thigh gap to be beautiful. It is possible to love your body the way it is.” We agree!

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Jenn Sinrich is an editor in New York City, a self-proclaimed foodie always looking for the healthier version of all recipes, a passionate lover of all things cheese, a friendly New Yorker, Bostonian at heart and proud Red Sox fan.
Love cats? Cheese? Mac n' Cheese? Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.